Post by Outlaw85 on Feb 10, 2009 0:24:19 GMT -6
I was asked to pass the following tribute along to the members and guests of this site. Please post your thoughts and memories of Coach Richardson. I believe he may just drop by this site from time to time to see what's going on.
Robert D. (Bobby) Richardson
Bobby Richardson was born in Fordyce, AR on December 22, 1942. He graduated from Fordyce High School in 1960 where he was a two-year letterman in football and a three-year letterman in track and Basketball. He was also an All-State selection in track and an honorable mention All-State in football and All-District selection in basketball.
He attended Arkansas State Teachers College ( now the University of Central Arkansas) and graduated with a BSE in 1965. During his collegiate days as a member of the track team, Richardson was a three-time Arkansas Intercollegiate mile champion, one-time AIC 880 champion, one-time AIC Cross Country champion and the AIC mile record holder. He was a four-year letterman in track and a member of four AIC track championships while at ASTC.
Richardson received his Master's Degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in 1966. His coaching career began in Crossett during the 1966-1967 school year.He joined the district as a math teacher and an assistant football coach under John Pierce and an assistant track coach under Bill Cook. From 1967-1994 Richardson was the head track coach at Crossett. During that time his teams won the state track championship 18 times and the cross country state championship four times. His teams won state track titles over four decades-1960,1970,1980 and 1990's. He was also an assistant football coach to Ed Johnson serving as defensive coordinator during the time the football team won the state championship in 1978 and 1984. He retired from his tack coaching duties in May 1994, but continued as an assistant football and track coach until 1998. He retired from teaching math at Crossett in May 2001.
Six of Coach Richardson's assistant coaches and athletes have gone on to be head coaches and have won several state track championships in Arkansas and Texas.
He was voted the Arkansas Track Coach of the Year 12 times and was nominated for National Track Coach of the Year. He was the recipient of the Lowell Manning Award and the Curtis King Award. He was inducted into the Ashley County Hall of Fame in 1989, into the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1995, into the Arkansas High School Coaches association Hall of Fame in 2004, into the Dallas County Hall of Fame in 2007 and into the UCA Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bobby married Sylvia Tucker from Crossett in 1965. They have two children. Their son Robert lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife Danielle. Robert is a software computer engineer with Raytheon.Daughter Beth Ann lives in Van Buran, Arkansas with her husband Trey White, daughter Laynie Elizabeth and son Jones Tucker. Beth Ann is a speech pathologist, but at the present time is a stay at home mother.
He is a member of the First Baptist Church Crossett where he teaches a men's Sunday School class and works with the youth and children's ministry programs.
